It just recently occured to me that the rut my life seems to be stuck in, for a VERY long time now, is all attributed to one thing.

Comfort.

Things go badly and what's the first thing most people do? They retreat to their comfort zone. They put on their comfy clothes, break out their favorite comfort food, watch their favorite comfort movies. It's a survival instinct I think. The way the human psyche reboots its programming after a trauma, shock or fairly vigorous shaking up. You reground yourself so you can venture forth again safe in the knowledge that you have a safe place to retreat to should the need ever arise again.

So what happens when the trauma is so devestating, the shock so soul numbing and the shaking ups too vigorous and/or too frequent? You retreat to your comfort zone. And you stay there. Indefinitely.
You build your zone into a veritable fortress. An impenetrable barrier that the trauma/shock/shaking-ups could never hope to infiltrate. And they try. And the walls just get thicker and thicker.

Such is my life.

I'm so cocooned in my comfort zone that I'm having trouble even seeing what is on the other side of that massive rampart. Don't get me wrong. The walls were necessary at the time they were built. But the danger is long past. The old wounds have scabbed over thick and gnarled. Most assuredly they will leave deep, indelible scars. I'm finally ready to move on. But it seems I forgot to put an exit in my mighty fortifications. I'm finally ready to explore all life has to offer outside my comfort zone.

Anybody got a ladder?